Apple Sold Fewer iPads Year Over Year for 13th Straight Quarter as Tablet Market Shrinks to Five-Year Low

[MacRumors]

The worldwide tablet market declined for a tenth straight quarter on a year-over-year basis last quarter, according to IDC. The market research firm estimates tablet shipments totaled only 36.2 million in the first quarter, the fewest since the third quarter of 2012, establishing a nearly five year low.

While the iPad remains the world's most popular tablet, it hasn't escaped the decline. Earlier this week, Apple reported that it sold 8.9 million iPads in the quarter, down from 10.2 million iPads in the year-ago quarter, marking the 13th consecutive quarter that it has sold fewer iPads on a year-over-year unit basis.

"Apple's results show that it is not immune to the changing dynamics of industry and consumer demand, part of which is due to the ongoing success of its other product lines," said IDC in a press release today.

Despite costlier iPad Pro models driving up prices, which helped Apple end a nine-quarter slide in iPad revenue less than a year ago, the company's tablet revenue has turned to the negative again. Apple reported earnings of $3.8 billion from iPads last quarter, down from $4.4 billion in the year-ago quarter.

Following tremendous growth in the tablet market in the first three years after the original iPad launched in 2010, IDC believes that consumers have become less eager to upgrade their tablets, more dependant on smartphones, and increasingly disinterested in purchasing tablets altogether.

"The rate at which the tablet market grew from 2010 to 2013 was unlike many other consumer-oriented device markets we've seen before," said Ryan Reith, program vice president with IDC. "However, it appears for many reasons consumers became less eager to refresh these devices, or in some instances purchase them at all. We continue to believe the leading driver for this was the increased dependency on smartphones, along with rather minimal technology and form factor progression."

Apple recorded an estimated 24.5 percent share of the worldwide tablet market in the first quarter, meaning that nearly one in every four tablets sold during the first three months of the year was an iPad. Samsung trailed in second with an estimated 6 million shipments for 16.5 percent market share.

Chinese company Huawei was the only tablet maker to experience growth in the quarter, shipping an estimated 2.7 million tablets, up 31.7 percent from a year ago. Amazon and Lenovo rounded off the top five vendors with an estimated 2.2 million and 2.1 million tablet shipments respectively in the quarter.

Beyond the iPad sales numbers, which are official, it's important to acknowledge that these are estimated figures, and shipments within distribution channels do not necessarily reflect sales to customers.

Article Link: Apple Sold Fewer iPads Year Over Year for 13th Straight Quarter as Tablet Market Shrinks to Five-Year Low

 

[BootsWalking]

Tablets are squeezed between smartphones with larger displays and notebooks with better performance and access to desktop apps.

 

[mwcfc1905]

thats because apple stopped releasing them. i have money ready for a iPad pro

 

[KSpider]

We have 6 iPads in the house, not one of them is less than 2-3 years old. They don't need to be upgraded like phones.

 

[bjjp2]

God, I love my ipads to death. Phones are too small for me to read or watch video on. Laptops are unnecessary for me if I'm not doing work and they don't have touch. Even if I'm doing light work, the smart keyboard is fine. Hope they don't abandon the ipads down the road.

 

[SoN1NjA]

Tablets are boring

The iPhone is ahead of the iPad, and it's a central device
and when I need a big screen to do real work I use a notebook

also pissed off when my mini 3 is laggy after 1 year (yes I know it's more than a year, but after a year mine was) and I paid $400, but that's my case; that being said I'm waiting on a mini 5

 

[Hym tix]

Hey Tim, Here's a simple fix: improve iOS for iPad and we'll buy more iPads

 

[MacsRgr8]

So much for tablets replacing computers.

 

[compete12]

Jobs-era officially passing baton to Not-Quite-Jobs-era.

 

[tokajilover]

Give us a Macbook-Pro with the Ability similar to a MS Surface.

but i don't need a MBP that can't be Upgraded. And i don't need a Ipad that can't run a full OSX with full MS-Office.

Cheers!

 

[NinjaHERO]

I'm not saying it's the main factor, but Apple's long refresh cycle for Ipads isn't helping. Update the 12.9 and you'll get my money Apple.

 

[Zaft]

Honestly since I got my 7 plus my iPad usage has decreased dramatically.

 

[ineedamac]

We have 6 iPads in the house, not one of them is less than 2-3 years old. They don't need to be upgraded like phones.

I agree. My iPad Air is working just fine. I see no glaring need to upgrade to a new model. I am considering the iPad Pro but it would need to be a great deal for me to upgrade...

 

[repoman016]

I own a gen 4 ipad but since all I do is watch videos and play Clash of clans I see no reason to drop $500+ to replace it. With that being said I am still running iOS 9.xx(maybe even 8 still) to avoid a sluggish OS

 

[Loge]

We need more high quality and deeply functional apps, of course iOS needs to improve to support this.

 

[tridley68]

Why do I need a tablet when my phone does everything I need.

 

[BrettArchibald]

I stopped using my iPad the day I got an iPhone 6 Plus. With such a big screen on my phone, I have no desire to use my iPad.
But I'd buy a new iPad in an instant if Apple made the OS between iPad and iPhone different, and gave us a proper accessible file system on it.
There just really isn't that much of a difference between my phone and my iPad otherwise

 

[JaySoul]

Sorry Tim, this is my fault. Still rocking an iPad 4!

My mum only just upgraded from an iPad 2 so it's also her fault.

 

[HarryKeogh]

I use my iPad Air 2 more than any other device. I love it. Totally.

For what I use it for (web surfing and YouTube and magazines), there's absolutely no reason to upgrade.

 

[dominiongamma]

macOS is what needed on iPad not limited iOS

 

[alexanderkilts]

I was ready to upgrade my first gen iPad Air to a maxed out iPad Pro, if they hadn't stuck with Lightning months after their MacBook Pro line clearly already signalled that USB-C is the future.

 

[Asianpork]

Waiting for updated iPad Pro 12.9...been waiting. If iPad Pro w/ Apple pencil can be used with the MBP as a Wacom tablet type extension it may revitalize the iPad sales again, IMO.

As others have mentioned: iPads don't slow down easily. My original iPad Air 2 is still snappy and strong.

 

[nazaar]

iPads haven't evolved so this shouldn't be a surprise. They basically still do what they've always done since day 1 though in a thinner package with Touch ID and more colors ... yeah yeah I know we had iPad Pro, but is it really any different.

 

[azentropy]

So much for tablets replacing computers.

No, they won't replace computers for everyone. But they still sold 2x as many iPads (8.9M) as they did Macs (4.2M).

 

[Abazigal]

I believe the chief reason is that Apple practically created the modern tablet market. In the beginning, everyone who wanted a tablet would get one from Apple, hence the exponential growth. Now, everyone who wants one has one, so we are gradually moving towards a PC-like replacement cycle, where the majority of users upgrade their iPads only every 4-5 years.

Let's look at it this way. Fewer people are buying the iPad mini, but revenue for the 9.7" and 12.9" iPads actually grew. This means that Apple will likely look to eventually phasing out the iPad mini. Once this is done, the larger iPads will be key to growth in the iPad market once again. Makes sense that Apple is pushing the larger iPads so aggressively in their latest advertisements.

The iPad is down but not out, and news of its demise are way exaggerated.